The Hindu : Right climate needed for talks, Pant tells Pak.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 08, 2002

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Right climate needed for talks, Pant tells Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD April 7. The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and the Prime Minister's `pointman' on Kashmir, K.C. Pant, has categorically ruled out the resumption of a dialogue between India and Pakistan unless Islamabad was willing to address New Delhi's concerns.

Mr. Pant arrived here early this morning to take part in the three-day SAARC Finance and Planning Ministers meet on `poverty eradication'.

Talking to Indian correspondents after an interactive session with a group of Pakistani writers here, Mr. Pant said, ``we feel that going through the motion of dialogue would not be productive unless conditions for its success are created.''

Substantiating the point, he said India had handed over to Pakistan a list of 20 fugitives and demanded their extradition, but there had been no response. He said Interpol had issued red corner notices to 16 of the 20 persons on the list.

Asked about the recent statement by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, in an interview to The Hindu that the list was ``rubbish'' and that New Delhi had not provided any evidence in support of the list, Mr. Pant said a number of statements on the subject had been made on both sides in the last few weeks.

``Apart from evidence given by the Government of India from time to time (on those mentioned in the list), some of the evidence against them has been provided by the Pakistani media itself,'' he said.

Mr. Pant said India was always committed to peace as well as dialogue within the framework of the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. ``There is no change in the position even today but conditions have to be created for a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue.''

He said Pakistan today was a partner of the international alliance against terrorism and it was committed to the elimination of terrorism wherever it existed. ``It is committed to destroying the support structure of terrorists, their finances, supply of arms and training. It has taken the position that there is no justification for terrorism anywhere. Gen. Musharraf has endorsed these ideas in his January 12 address to the people of Pakistan.

Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Pant would have a face-to-face on Monday when the two would formally meet at the inaugural session of SAARC's Ministers conference. Gen. Musharraf is scheduled to deliver the inaugural address.

However, unlike the hype and expectation that preceded the arrival of the Union Minister, Sushma Swaraj, there is hardly any enthusiasm either in the Pakistani establishment or the media over the three-day stay of Mr. Pant here. As of now, there is no official meeting between him and Pakistan officials on bilateral issues.

However, an invitation from the Pakistan Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz, for an exchange of views on `poverty alleviation' is not being ruled out. In his press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Aziz had hinted at such a possibility.

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